Ramirez, Advocates, Impacted Individuals Call on Congress to End the ICE Age

Washington, DC - Today, after the murders and ICE-related deaths in Maine, Texas, and Florida last week, amidst the deadliest years for immigrant detention in ICE's history, and after members of Congress voted to fund the government through December, including DHS, Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez (IL-03), immigration advocates, and impacted individuals stood together to demand that members of Congress pass the H.R. 7190, The Melt ICE Act. The bill would end the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) authority and funding to detain and monitor immigrants, disrupt immigration enforcement, and redirect funding back to communities for services.

Despite more than 50 members of Congress calling for the abolition, dismantling, or melting of ICE, only 13 members of Congress have joined the bill.

"DHS REMAINS the biggest threat to our collective safety. PERIOD. Americans are demanding members of Congress pursue more than training, more than reform, and more than bare-minimum policies. They are demanding that no other family suffers the pain of deportation or death at the hands of DHS's immigration enforcement," said Congresswoman Ramirez. "Today, we are saying it is time to Melt ICE and END the ICE AGE. Every single Democrat who is saying that it's unacceptable that DHS is terrorizing our communities must act and become a cosponsor of my H.R. 7190, The Melt ICE Act, to end detention, disrupt immigration enforcement, and redirect funding back to communities for services."

"ICE is shooting people who are going to work, taking their children to school, and even visiting as tourists. The death toll of ICE victims keeps rising. The actions of ICE's masked death squads reflect the shameless cruelty of Trump and Miller's policies, paid for by our tax dollars. It's time to stop the ICE age and pass the Melt ICE Act," said Congressman Jesús "Chuy" García (IL-04), cosponsor of the Melt ICE Act. "We must dismantle DHS and its for-profit detention centers, prosecute agents for their crimes, end the criminalization of immigrants, rebuild the enforcement system from the ground up, establish independent immigration courts, create safe and lawful pathways for migration, and actually fund case processing."

"The ICE-related deaths we've seen in recent weeks are heartbreaking and unacceptable. They reflect a pattern of abuse, misinformation, and a complete lack of accountability that has put lives at risk for far too long. Time and again, ICE has shown time and again that it cannot be reformed. We need real action by passing the Melt ICE Act, ending our reliance on detention, dismantling ICE, and building an immigration system rooted in dignity, justice, and respect for human rights," said Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva (AZ-07), cosponsor of the Melt ICE Act.

"ICE agents are murdering people in the streets, tearing families apart, abducting our neighbors, and locking them in cages. ICE must be abolished - full stop. The billions of dollars that funded ICE should be given to the communities who suffered under their reign of terror. The Melt ICE Act, which I cosponsor, redirects funds toward housing, healthcare, and community organizations serving our immigrant neighbors," said Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), cosponsor of the Melt ICE Act.

Ramirez was joined by Detention Watch Network, Immigrant Defense Project, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and Bend the Arc to launch End The ICE Age, a new campaign calling on Members of Congress to shut down ICE detention centers, stop detention expansion, cut funding for ICE, and get ICE out of communities.

Ramirez was also joined by Sonimar Maria, the sister of Jesus Manuel Arenas Silva, a Venezuelan immigrant who was detained on July 13 and died in ICE custody two days after.

"ICE kills people, separates families, and threatens community safety across the country - full stop. No one is safe when ICE is present - whether on the streets or in one of the agency's more than 200 abuse-ridden detention facilities. People are dying in ICE detention at a record-breaking rate, ICE agents are tearing families apart and shooting people on the streets, making people less safe, and causing chaos wherever they go - whether in Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Biddeford, or beyond. Make no mistake, we are witnessing a watershed moment. No more abuse and death at the hands of ICE and no more ICE funding while people lose health care, struggle to pay rent and kids go hungry. We demand an end to the ICE age," said Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director at Detention Watch Network.

"Communities around the country are fed up - enough is enough! We must End the ICE Age now. Since Congress has turbo-boosted ICE through billions and billions of dollars of appropriations, our communities have become even less safe from racial profiling, abusive and discriminatory policing and the destabilization of our families caused by detention and deportation. We call on Congress to protect our neighbors and families from deadly ICE armed patrols terrorizing our streets and to end immigration detention in California, Texas and around the country. Stand with us as we demand justice and the ability of our communities to thrive," said Sameera Hafiz, Policy Director at Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

"ICE is a deadly agency that tramples the rights of all of us. In addition to its own agents terrorizing communities, ICE enlists or coerces local agencies to racially profile and detain people - often illegally - to boost numbers for its mass deportation agenda. Americans don't want ICE on our streets murdering our neighbors, we don't want our loved ones disappeared and locked up in deplorable ICE prisons, and we won't stand for hundreds of billions of our tax dollars being diverted to fund this system of terror. Everyone deserves dignity and due process. It's time to end the ICE Age," said Benita Jain, Senior Advisor & Federal Policy Counsel at Immigrant Defense Project.

"There is a degree of human suffering so extreme that it is unjustifiable, no matter what rules a society claims to follow. What is being done by ICE in our name is an unholy rupture of that order, and we cannot look away or stand idly by while our neighbors bleed. American Jews do not want ICE on our streets, abducting and murdering our neighbors, and this rogue agency proved a long time ago it is beyond reform. It's time to close down the detention centers, abolish and dismantle ICE, and redirect its funding to programs that sustain life and dignity instead of trampling on them," said Eli Williams-Szenes, Director of Advocacy and Political Affairs at Bend the Arc: Jewish Action.

"No veteran or service member should have to defend our freedoms overseas while fearing their own family will be separated at home. America made a commitment to those who wear the uniform, and that commitment must include protecting the families who stand beside them. Freedom means families stay together. Dignity means every person is treated with humanity and respect, regardless of where they were born. LULAC calls on our nation's leaders to act with compassion, uphold due process, and ensure that military families and veterans are treated with the honor, respect, and gratitude their sacrifices have earned," said Danitza James, US Army Veteran and Vice Chair of LULAC Military & Veterans Affairs.

For the full legislative text, CLICK HERE.

For a video of the press conference, CLICK HERE.

For photos, CLICK HERE.

BACKGROUND:

Given the Trump Administration's expanded mass deportation agenda, DHS's immigration enforcement, including ICE, has received broad criticism for its violent tactics, lack of transparency, and disruption of Congressional oversight. The last year became the agency's deadliest year in more than two decades, with 32 people dying in ICE custody, especially in for-profit private detention centers with limited oversight. And on July 22, 2026, 2026 is on its way to becoming the deadliest with at least 22 deaths in detention. Since the start of Trump's second administration, at least 10 people have been shot and killed by DHS agents without any accountability, including Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Joan Sebastián Guerrero, Silverio Villegas-González, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, Renee Good, Keith Porter, Rubén Ray Martínez, Jaime Alanís García, Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez, and Josué Castro Rivera.